


daylight breaking

by ikijai



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Kingdom Hearts III, inspired by that titbit from the E3 trailer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 10:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14932688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikijai/pseuds/ikijai
Summary: Lea and Kairi have a discussion after training for the day.





	daylight breaking

They’re done training for the day, looking out at the sunset over the trees transcending thousands of miles.

Lea props his elbows up onto his knees, tall form bent forward to take in the beauty of it all. But it’s a hollow kind of beauty. The kind that’s missing an important piece.

He knows it’s Kairi that joins him on the boulder before he turns to look. She doesn’t talk at first, but it’s okay. He’s just glad she stopped asking permission.

“Tired?” he drawls, lip ticking up.

Kairi’s burgundy head shakes back and forth, smile forming over her delicate features. “I wish I could train all day.”

“Gotta work your way up to that,” Lea teases.

“ _Because Master Yen Sid insists_ ,” they say in unison.

“Impressive work you’re doing with that keyblade of yours, kid. It’s a difficult task.”

Kairi shrugs, eyes downcast. “I’ve dealt with more difficult tasks.”

Lea sighs internally, trying to think of what to do. Time to be the bigger person he’s been trying to be since he left the Organization.

“Kairi,” he utters. There’s defiance and truth in her oddly familiar blue eyes when she turns to look directly into his. He forgets sometimes, that he doesn’t have those intimidating tattoos on his face anymore. The expression he offers is entirely his own. It’s a human being’s. “I, uh. I never did get to apologize for kidnapping you, before.”

He expected just about any kind of response, but he didn't expect the shrill laugh she offers. “You're still thinking about that, Axel?”

“Full disclosure: I still think about a lot of things I did back then.” He tells it like it's a joke because it's the only defense mechanism left to turn to.

Kairi looks at him in understanding, of all things. He doesn't think he deserves it. It feels wrong.

“Well, you don't have to anymore,” the teen offers kindly, wise beyond her years. “I forgive you. If I’m being honest, I did a long time ago.”

“But _why?_ ” He's genuinely incredulous, because he's understood a lot of things in his day, terrible and ugly and incredible, but he doesn't understand this.

Kairi shrugs, but he can tell she's in deep thought. The blue of her eyes turns distant as she peers over the trees. “It's useless to hold onto the bitterness of old things. It's a wasted emotion, shrouded in darkness.”

“Did Yen Sid tell you that?”

Kairi dips her head, toying with a zipper on her jacket. “A friend of mine told me that.”

“I had friends like that, too,” Lea offers, and it's true. “Friends that kept me from giving into darkness.”

His eyebrows knit together. “You know, it's kinda funny.. you remind of one of them, of somebody I used to know. I just can't put my finger on it.”

“Was it Naminé?”

Lea lets his head go back and forth. It doesn't feel so lonely when they talk like this. “It was someone else.. I think Roxas and I used to eat ice cream with her up in the clock tower.”

“Do you know what happened to her?”

It's obvious, he thinks. She isn't there. Instead, he says, “I think she went back to where she belonged.”

“When you were with Organization XIII?”

The laugh that escapes his throat is ironic at best. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so. It's weird, though. I can't remember a name, just the face. I didn't think of it until I looked at you just now. The memory—it's distorted. But I digress. If it's gone, it's gone.”

“There was a time when I forgot about my friends,” Kairi says, tone low like it's a secret she doesn't want to tell. “A while after they disappeared from the island. It was their faces first. Then their names. But I _did_ remember them. It just took time.”

Lea offers her a tired smile.

“Maybe.. maybe you’ll remember, too. In time.”

The undeniable hope in the way she says it leaves a knot in his throat. He’s so used to being defensive that he forgets he doesn't have to be all the time.

“I don’t think I’m as optimistic as you, Kairi. I don't think I could be if I tried.”

“I don't think that’s true,” Kairi challenges, eyes narrowing teasingly. It's a wonder how she can be so positive after everything that's been taken. “You were optimistic enough to leave the Organization. You were determined enough to fight for what’s important.”

Lea shakes his head in disbelief. “That's different.”

“Why is it different?” Kairi shoots back.

Lea inhales, letting the breeze still his insides. This _being a person_ thing is more difficult than he remembered it to be. “Back in the Organization, I got stuck with the icky jobs. But I still met every demand Xemnas could think up. I was upset I’d be thrown out if I did something they thought was wrong. I was just.. trying to be useful. Trying to be something important. It's ironic, isn't it? A Nobody trying to be something.”

Kairi tries to interject, but Lea keeps talking.

“I worked under Xemnas like I didn't have free will. But it was only a heart I was missing, not a mind. I kept that the whole time I was there. Others didn't. I thought the Organization was doing something that mattered. I thought we were in it together.”

It's almost too quiet in the tranquility.

“But they turned on you?” Kairi whispers.

Lea snorts dishonorably. “You could say that. My best friend Isa— _Saïx_ , he turned into something I didn't recognize no matter how desperately I wanted to see that idiot teenager I knew back in the Garden. He just.. let them get inside his head, became someone different. Guess that's when I knew I didn't want to be part of them.”

“See? That's kind of optimism, isn't it? Otherwise you would've stayed.”

Lea huffs, teeth inducing a twinge of pain where they dig into his bottom lip. “I waited too long, though.”

“But you _did_ leave,” Kairi insists.

“I died,” Lea utters under his breath. It's low enough that the girl beside him doesn't hear it, thankfully.

Out loud, he tries to say, “If I’d just left sooner—”

“Don't,” Kairi interjects. And Lea’s got to hand it to the kid. She's tough, determined.

He hates that there are tears forming in his eyes. “Roxas,” he laughs, despite everything. “That kid, he instigated trouble every chance he got. He's like your friend Sora that way. Guess that's why he ended up the way he did.”

He might as well be transparent with the way Kairi tilts her head at him. “Like Sora, he's got a strong heart. It'll bring him back to us. It'll bring him back to _you_.”

“People succumb to the darkness everyday,” Lea utters like it makes a difference. Like it makes any part of it okay.

“That isn't what happened to your friend.”

“Same difference,” he sighs.

Kairi looks at him discerningly, ducking her head to look him directly in the eye when his gaze begins to stray the other direction.

“A few years back, before Destiny Islands were destroyed the first time, my friends and I were just normal kids. Taking a boat out to play on the beach until the sun went down every day,” she begins, then takes a deep breath before what Lea assumes is the part that's difficult to talk about.

“Then there was this big thunderstorm that took everything away, including us. There were other kids on the island too. Tidus, Wakka.. I don't know what happened to them. But Sora, Riku and I, we went to so many different worlds on our own. I watched Riku turn to the darkness. Sora’s heart was too pure to be tainted by it, but Riku.. he was too young, too vulnerable. It overtook him.”

Lea watches her wipe a tear. It’s discreet, but he notices tiny details even when he doesn't want to.

“I watched Sora try to get it out of him. I watched him fight tooth and nail to protect the things that mattered. He did well. But Riku still got trapped in the realm of darkness and I still drifted back to the islands. It took a year for us to be together again. The whole thing was terrifying. But we were just kids then. We gave each other paopu fruits and drew on the walls instead of keeping promises. What did we know?”

“You knew enough to keep fighting,” Lea urges kindly.

Kairi’s face twists dejectedly. “I was useless. I was the defenseless one.”

“That's not true, Kairi. And even if it _were_ true, which it isn't, things’re different now. I mean, look at the pair of us,” he teases, nudging her bare shoulder with his black-clad one. "You've been improving in training. I've been.. learning how to use the keyblade, if you will.”

That gets a laugh out of her. Lea’s lip ticks up.

“I’ve learned that it's impossible to know what destiny has in store for us,” Kairi smiles sadly. “But it's always possible to keep trying, right?”

“Yeah,” he offers. “That's right.”

“Before you took me,” Kairi begins, and he winces internally. “You told me, ‘If you have a dream, don't wait. Act.’ I still believe that's true. I think you believe it is, too.”

“Talk about indignation,” Lea jokes.

“I didn't know what you meant back then, but I do now.”

“I used to tell the same thing to my friends,” he ponders. “Roxas, Isa.. Xion.”

The name comes to him out of thin air. He gasps at the image in his head, black hair bobbing in laughter over ice cream, petite figure too tiny for the black cloak she wore. It's gone as soon as it's there.

If Kairi noticed his moment of shock, it doesn't show. Maybe it's true, what she said. Maybe old memories can't truly be forgotten.

“We should probably head back inside,” Lea utters. “It's starting to get dark.”

“Yeah, probably,” Kairi nods, though it doesn't look like she wants to get up any time soon. “Training early tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

The inquiry she makes next takes him aback. “Do you think we’ll beat Xehanort?”

His initial response stalls at the tip of his tongue.

Lea tries his best not to physically balk. “What made you think about that?”

“It's what we’re training for, isn't it?” she shrugs quickly.

There’s something timid to it, something hidden deep that she doesn't want him to detect. It's worry, he decides. Uncertainty about how things’ll turn out.

“That's what the big man tells us,” Lea shrugs back, but he's terrified too.

“Then you think we'll win?” Kairi reiterates.

He has to think for a moment. Up until now, he hadn't decided what he thought their fate would be. He takes it all in. The breeze. The dying sun. The tranquility. It's enough to make him believe in his own proclaimation.

“Yeah, I think we will.”

“But how do you _know_ that?” Kairi urges, the depths of her bright eyes imploring his.

There's a lot to be afraid of. Xehanort forming his team of darknesses, the outcome of the inevitable war. But they'll defeat it together.

“The worlds depend on it,” he utters, turning to begin the trek inside.

It's the truth.


End file.
